Quality is partly caring after everyone else would accept “close enough.”
RESILIENCE
RESILIENCE
There is a point in every piece of work where it is good enough to pass, and most work stops there because stopping there is entirely reasonable. Quality is largely what happens in the stretch beyond that point, the extra pass that nobody asked for, made by someone who could tell the difference and decided it mattered.
You cannot afford to go past good enough on everything, and you should not try. Choose deliberately. Pick the one or two things where the extra care will actually be felt, spend it there, and let the rest be close enough without guilt.
Where do you keep going after others would have stopped?
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.